CA rooftop solar, climate change plan controversial

If there’s one factor Thursday made clear, it’s that climate coverage and controversy go hand in hand in California.

Depending on whom you ask, the 2 main actions state regulators took Thursday are both indicative of California “leading the world’s most significant economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution” (as Gov. Gavin Newsom put it) or symbolize “a complete retreat from California’s unrivaled position of leadership in the clean energy revolution” (as Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, described the state’s new rooftop solar rules).

What are these new guidelines? In the ultimate installment of what some have described as “a kind of solar rooftop Hunger Games,” the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to overhaul the state’s 27-year-old residential solar rules — decreasing funds to owners for extra energy however offering almost $1 billion in incentives to encourage extra photo voltaic tasks for low-income properties, CalMatters’ Julie Cart reports.

Almost the entire feedback delivered through the intense, hours-long assembly had been in opposition — and neither utility firms nor photo voltaic advocates emerged completely happy.

The divisive vote comes as California races to shore up its fragile power grid — which narrowly escaped rolling blackouts this summer and stays at excessive threat of power shortfalls throughout peak demand, in response to a Thursday report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation — whereas concurrently relying extra on solar energy as a part of its plan for attaining carbon neutrality.

Just how briskly will that transition be? Well, the sweeping, ambitious blueprint approved unanimously by the California Air Resources Board requires slashing the state’s greenhouse gasoline emissions by 48% beneath 1990 ranges by 2030, up from the 40% discount at the moment required by state legislation.

To meet the plan’s targets, state officers estimate that California over the subsequent 20 years will want about 30 instances extra electrical automobiles, six instances extra family electrical home equipment and 4 instances extra wind and photo voltaic technology capability, CalMatters’ Nadia Lopez reports. The estimated price: $18 billion in 2035 and $27 billion in 2045.

• Air Resources Board Member Daniel Sperling: “This is an extraordinary exercise and document, and it’s the most comprehensive, detailed plan for getting to net zero anywhere in the world.”
• But many members of the general public who spoke through the eight-hour assembly opposed the plan’s reliance on carbon seize, a controversial technique to seize emissions from oil refineries and different services and inject the carbon deep into rocks underground. Critics say that method merely prolongs the lifespan of fossil gas vegetation.
• Olivia Seideman, a climate policy advocate at Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability: “California’s shiny new climate strategies still sacrifice low-income and communities of color with increased pollution across the state.”

Just a few different climate nuggets of curiosity:

Other Stories You Should Know

1
COVID office guidelines get a giant overhaul

California companies will not must pay COVID-infected staff to remain residence beneath rules approved Thursday by Cal/OSHA, the state’s office security company — a improvement applauded by business teams and opposed by labor unions and worker safety advocates. The new laws, that are set to take impact early subsequent yr and final for 2 years, are the newest instance of California winding down its pandemic insurance policies forward of a scheduled Feb. 28 expiration of the COVID state of emergency. State knowledge up to date Thursday reveals that California’s COVID test positivity and death rates are starting to tick down after a late-fall surge, although hospitalizations are still on the rise.

Here’s a take a look at different key adjustments to California’s current COVID workplace safety rules, as identified by the San Francisco Chronicle:

• Employers not must display screen their workers for COVID signs; as a substitute, staff are inspired to self-report them.
• Companies not must notify native public well being departments about office circumstances and outbreaks, although the companies might require them to. A invoice that may have required this information to be shared publicly died in the state Legislature.
• There are new definitions for such COVID buzzwords as “close contact” and “infectious period.”

Another California COVID coverage coming to an finish: a legislation requiring large employers to offer workers as much as 80 hours of COVID-related paid sick depart. The program expires Dec. 31, however Californians can proceed to obtain the profit into January so long as they begin a declare by the deadline — and may request retroactive funds in the event that they took unpaid or underpaid depart between Jan. 1 and Feb. 19, 2022, according to the Chronicle. Moving ahead, contaminated Californians could also be eligible for different advantages, such as disability insurance or workers’ compensation.

2
Chronic absenteeism jumps in California faculties

From CalIssues training reporter Joe Hong: Chronic absenteeism in California’s Okay-12 public faculties was method, method up final college yr, knowledge launched Thursday by the state Department of Education reveals. This spike in power absences isn’t shocking, particularly contemplating that the omicron surge of early 2022 wreaked havoc on each pupil and staff attendance. 

But the California School Dashboard — which was rebooted Thursday for the primary time in three years after a pandemic pause — reveals that nearly a third of all college students missed no less than 18 days out of a typical 180-day college yr in 2021, 3 times as a lot as in 2019.  (On Wednesday, the training division issued guidance to assist native college districts handle power absenteeism.)

• And pupil absences had been simply one among many disruptions to training final yr: As Joe has reported, even when college students had been in school, there’s a great probability their teachers were out and substitutes had been unavailable, particularly for faculties in high-poverty communities. One consequence: California student test scores plummeted, whilst some achievement gaps narrowed.
• Susan Markarian, president of the California School Boards Association, said in a statement the dashboard “underscores the need for continued investment in public education. Many of the issues facing schools are generational in nature and will extend beyond the timeline of emergency relief funding.”

You can seek for your college or district on the state’s dashboard, which incorporates quite a lot of knowledge factors. Suspension rates, for instance, remained steady statewide since 2019, whereas four-year graduation rates elevated by 2 proportion factors to 87%. But, state education officials acknowledged, a few of that improve was seemingly attributable to a 2020-21 state law that — in an try and “give a boost to students most impacted by COVID-19” — allowed some letter grades to be modified to go/no go and exempted from some native commencement necessities highschool juniors and seniors who weren’t on observe to graduate in 4 years.

3
California wildfire updates

California’s wildfire season this yr may have been mild, however that doesn’t imply there isn’t wildfire news:

• Firefighters working for Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting company, have agreed to a brand new contract that can slash six hours off their 72-hour minimal workweek — however not till 2024, CalMatters’ Julie Cart reports. In a stunning four-part investigation published in June, Julie uncovered how California’s lengthening wildfire season and intensifying blazes have spurred a psychological well being epidemic at Cal Fire, with many firefighters scuffling with PTSD and suicidal ideas. “Nothing for the next two years will relieve those stresses,” Tim Edwards, president of Cal Fire Union Local 2881, advised Julie. The shortened workweek might additionally doubtlessly be imperiled by the state’s projected budget deficit.
• Cal Fire for the primary time in 15 years has launched an updated map of California’s wildfire hazard severity zones — and, unsurprisingly, fire risks have increased since 2007. The map, nevertheless, solely tracks wildfire hazards in unincorporated, rural elements of the state. Californians can weigh in on the map in a series of public hearings across the state.
• The PG&E Fire Victim Trust — set as much as compensate tens of hundreds of victims of wildfires brought on by PG&E tools — is emphasizing its progress after a sequence of damaging studies. A 2021 KQED investigation discovered the belief had been sluggish to pay victims and fast to rack up massive payments for legal professionals and consultants. In April, one of the trust’s lobbyists departed amid allegations of sexual harassment. And in August a Los Angeles Times investigation linked the belief’s former trustee to disgraced California lawyer Tom Girardi, who was accused of stealing tens of millions of {dollars} from his shoppers. But the belief’s new trustee, Cathy Yanni, issued a sunny press release Thursday asserting that 60 million PG&E shares had been offered to boost $908 million in money for the belief, amongst different milestones. Questions stay, nevertheless, as as to whether the belief will truly be capable of make victims entire, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports.

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